DIY 3D Printed iPhone Case (Even Incorporate Your Favorite Sound)

You know we love everything 3D printed and the technology behind it. We write about it as much as we can, and it’s becoming more and more mainstream. A year ago, it was hard to grasp the concept of purchasing something online and then printing it at home. Back then, taking the shipping process out of the purchasing equation seemed bizarre and wonderful at the same time. But now that we’ve all warmed up to the idea, we can’t get enough. The only thing stopping us all from going gangbusters into everything 3D printed right now is cost. Once those prices drop into an affordable range, I know we will all get one of those printers immediately.

I started thinking today about iPhone cases. We’ve written about too many of them to count, but we’ve never touched on a 3D printed iPhone case. It didn’t take much searching online to find that not only do 3D printed iPhone 5 cases exist, but there are some DIY ones also. You don’t have to have a 3D printer to make one of these. You can use a 3D printing service like Shapeways.

Below you’ll see two videos that explain the process. In the second one, you’ll even see that you can incorporate your favorite sound (like your baby’s laughter or your favorite song) into your 3D printed case. This is made possible by a collaboration between Shapeways and SoundCloud. That case creates a graph based on the soundwaves of the sound you choose, and it uses that graph to create the case itself. If you are looking for a high tech, super geeky, one-of-a-kind iPhone case, this might be the ultimate solution for you. This kind of technology is so inspiring to me, and I’m looking forward to see how our daily lives evolve as a result of 3D printing.